Overview: The struggles regarding the Dolphins’ offensive line last season have been well documented. Giving up 58 sacks led to a complete revamp of the entire unit, and Mike Pouncey‘s reported injury means that the group will be composed of five new starters. At the tackle position, Miami will likely start Pro Bowl selectionBranden Albert on the blind side, and first round selectionJa’Wuan James at right tackle. On the inside it gets a little bit more clouded because of Pouncey’s absence. Second year guard Dallas Thomas is likely to grab the left guard position, and free agentShelley Smith starts at the other guard position, but may be moved inside to center, as he took reps at that position during OTAs with Pouncey gone. If Smith holds firm at guard, it likely becomes a competition at the center position between two guys that filled that spot last season in place of Pouncey in Sam Brenner and Nate Garner. There also could be potential for newly signed offensive lineman Daryn Colledge to compete for a starting position, either at guard of center.

Overview: The interior of New England’s offensive line isn’t what it once used to be, but the Patriots are very strong on the outside. Two towering tackles flank either end of the men in front of Tom Brady in Sebastian Vollmer and Nate Solder. Both stand 6’8” and are effective in both pass and run blocking. Vollmer will be itching to get back on the field after a season ending injury against Miami in Week 8 last year. At left guard is longtime Patriots leader Logan Mankins, a six-time Pro Bowl selection and five-time All-Pro. The questions for New England are along the lines of last year’s starters at center and one of the guard spots. Both guard Dan Connolly and center Ryan Wendell struggled at times last season, and could be pushed for their starting jobs by Brian Stork, a fourth round pick out of Florida State, and Josh Kline, a 2013 undrafted free agent, respectively.

Overview: The New York Jets return four starters from last season, with the lone player missing from last year’s lineup being Austin Howard, now playing for the Raiders. Starting at left tackle is former Pro Bowl selection D’Brickashaw Ferguson, who hasn’t missed a game in eight seasons. Playing right tackle and replacing Howard is former Seattle Seahawks tackle Breno Giacomini, who started nine games for the Super Bowl champs last season (he missed Weeks 4-10 due to knee surgery). At center is Jets stalwart Nick Mangold, a five time Pro-Bowler who has only missed two games in eight seasons. The lone competition for New York is at the guard spots, where it’s a fight between three guys for two positions with veteran Willie Colon going up against younger playersOday Aboushi and Brian Winters. Winters played in 16 games and started 12, while Aboushi was effectively redshirted last year.

Overview:Buffalo had the second-best offensive line in terms of rushing yardage last year, as the team ran for a combined 2,307 yards in 2013. The Bills bring back three starters from last year. Cordy Glenn will play the blind side once again, while Eric Wood stays at center. Both didn’t miss a game last year. The other starter from last year inKraig Urbik could be pushed by fifth round pickCyril Richardson, but likely holds the right guard spot. The two new additions to the offensive line are veteran guard Chris Williams, and Buffalo’s second round pick in former Alabama tackle Cyrus Kouandjio. Both will be hoping to beef up a unit that struggled in the passing game, giving up 48 sacks, the 4th most in the league.

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The opinions, analysis and/or speculation expressed by The Finsiders Blog represent those of individual writers, and unless quoted or clearly labeled as such, do not represent the opinions, policies or desires of the Miami Dolphins organization, front office, coaches and executives. Writers' views are formulated independently from any inside information and/or conversation with Dolphins officials, including the coaches and scouts, unless otherwise noted.

If this OL pans out and is as good as i think they will be that means R. TANNEHILL will be AWESOME ( at least i think) with the recievers that we now have and the TE,S man o man i,m gettin excited about this season. My only question mark is the RB,S, i lkie L. MILLER ALOT, not sure about Mereno ( not sure about spelling) he did good in Denver hope he does same here……the PHINS DEFENSE IS TUFF ENOUGH!!! LOVE IT TOO!!! again my worry is the RB, everything else i i like very much and it won,t be very long till its FOOTBALL TIME…….GO PHINS!!!

I really think we have a very good group of OL on this team, a very big improvement from the last couple of yrs. and i like the delpth we have alot of these players can play diff. pos….. The biggest plus is we have Veterans mixed with young talent, So the more the OL plays together the better we become…I LOVE IT!!! …i see 5 very good STARTERS and at least 2-3 good backups on this team and for a lot of yrs to. i will say i would like to see them resign Mckinney also just in case he even said he would like to finsh his career here so why not?….i hope i,m not just wishing for alot but i just seem to feel very good about the FUTURE of this team…guess we,ll see……..GO PHINS!!!

The addition of Colledge may have effectively taken Billy Turner out of the mix for one of the starting jobs. Regardless of who does start in the interior of the O-line, we will end up with some pretty decent depth with the backups. I would still like to see the team pick up McKinney for some depth at the tackle positions though. I don’t see quality backups at the tackle positions at this point.